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We get a lot of questions about our style of Chardonnay which is beloved by so many around the world. Below we answer two of the most common.
Is Rombauer Chardonnay buttery?
The term Buttery is frequently used to describe our Chardonnay, but like all tastes, flavors, and perceptions, it varies by individual. It is certainly creamy, rounded, and rich but few perceive it to be as dense as the description buttery implies.
Rombauer Chardonnay undergoes a process called “malolactic fermentation” which is not technically a fermentation but instead a conversion of acid from one type to another. It converts malic acid, a tart acid found in Granny Smith apples, to lactic acid, a softer acid found in milk and yogurt. The creaminess from the lactic acid is what you are feeling when you drink our Chardonnays.
Is Rombauer Chardonnay unoaked?
No 🙂 Our use of oak barrels is extremely important to our signature style. 100% of our Chardonnay is both fermented and then briefly aged in oak barrels, a mixture of French and American. Every year a percentage of those barrels is new, two-year old, and three-year old as we believe a combination of barrel age is important to the flavor and textural development.
That said, our goal is for the oak influence to be in balance with the other core components of our Chardonnay so it might not be perceived as prominent as it is.
Want to learn more about our barrel program? Watch here as we go behind the scenes of our cooper as well as focus on the oak’s impact on our wines. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZOG8cpfT3o
